It is getting warm again here in the UK! It’s been a busy month over here, with a bunch more doctors appointments. Not the most exciting or enjoyable stuff, but what better way to distract myself than play some cosy video games? For once, I’ve been playing something that is cosy. At least, it is cosier than making death camps in Rimworld.
That brings us to today’s Bite Sized review in Folklands! I’ve been looking forward to this quaint little city builder for a while before launch, and I put in a fair bit of time into it since the developers sent me a review code to try out. The city-building genre is a big one, and some of my favorite games in this bracket include Farthest Frontier and Manor Lords. Folklands is available in Early Access for 15$, and while it has a long way to go, I am enjoying this one. Like my impressions of Outworld Station, I’ll be doing a table layout that should make it easier for you to get what I am talking about. Grab some snacks and let us begin!
| Category | Overview |
| Genre | Folklands looks very simple, and it is designed to be more relaxing than other citybuilders out there. I like how the devs are approaching it, as not everything has to be doom or gloom. It has some difficult decisions of course, but early impressions are good. |
| Visuals | We do not often get pixel art city builders! I find them quaint with its striking 2D graphics. The maps have a nice range of biomes, and it is fun watching the little citizens going about their business. Despite the simplicity of the graphics, Falklands does a good job with its limited toolset. I hope they improve the animations, as they are a little stiff. Some more variation would be nice, especially with the music. |
| Gameplay Mechanics | Folklands’s gameplay is solid enough for a relaxing city-builder. A solid tutorial gets things off on the right foot, with lots of random generated maps that offer some variance. There are a bunch of buildings and things to manage your budding settlement, and there are random events that keep you on your toes. I feel it needs a sandbox mode or more starting options. |
| Technical Performance | Overall, the technical performance in Folklands is decent, although the largest map sizes have a habit of tanking framerates. You’ll need a powerful rig for the larger maps, but medium maps saw pretty good performance. I would stick with those, as there are plenty of resources for a long playthrough. Otherwise, it runs well enough on light hardware. |
| Content for Early Access | For $15 in Early Access, Folklands boasts some good value for the money, although it could use some more options as I said earlier. City Builders often need some kind of sandbox mode for replayability, but the developers are pretty active in adding to the game. |
| Fun Factor | Fun is obviously a subjective term. How do you rate how fun something is? For me, it was how invested I was into playing the game and how excited I was between sessions. While there are teething troubles, Folklands manages the tough balance between ‘relaxing’ and ‘enjoyable’ reasonably well. |
| Conclusion | Despite its chill nature, Folklands blends just enough complexity to make its gameplay interesting to keep with, and while visuals are dated with some improvement for content required, I’ve enjoyed Folklands more than I expected. |
